New forms of portable communication device utilizing synchronous and asynchronous style communication over known wireless communication protocols such as 802.11 WiFi and cellular are starting to come to market. For instance, the Relay device by Republic Wireless® is a screenless disk-like handheld device that can enable voice and data communication with other Relay devices similar to the way walkie-talkies communicate. Many of these communication devices utilize an Internet Protocol (IP) communication link rather than a circuit switched communication link to exchange voice data with a communications server. The communications server mediates voice messages between and among various endpoints. The communication device(s) may wirelessly connect to an IP network over one or more wireless IP interfaces and communication links.
The IP communication link may be 802.11 based such as WiFi or may be cellular based utilizing at least one of the many cellular IP air interfaces. There are several cellular IP air interfaces already in existence that use specific frequency ranges that are suitable for use with the embodiments described herein. It should be noted that the term 802.11 encompasses all of the 802.11 versions that currently exist and may be developed. Some cellular IP air interface examples include the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), Long-Term Evolution (LTE), Voice-over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), and High Rate Packet Data (HRPD). Moreover, there are many more wireless IP air interfaces in the planning and/or experimental stages (e.g., 5G, light-wave based, etc.) that use the same and/or different frequencies that would also be suitable for use with the embodiments described herein.
These portable communication devices may also communicate with network based servers and other endpoints such as, for instance, smartphones, computers or tablets to enable a variety of use cases.
One such use case for a portable communication device may be to act as safety enhancing device. For instance, the communication device may be programmed for a panic mode to deter would be assailants. In such a mode, the communication device may send out a shrill alarm sound while simultaneously recording the ambient environment with the alarm sound filtered out of any recording. Additionally, the recording may be periodically tagged with meta data including, at a minimum, a location and time stamp. The recording and metadata may then be uploaded to a server for storage and/or real-time forwarding to one or more relevant other endpoints.
What is needed are techniques for easily and intuitively managing a panic mode for a portable communication device.